NIH Officials Cleared of Interfering in Oversight of Preemie Study

September 19, 2014

(Science) – A federal watchdog office has dismissed allegations that last year National Institutes of Health (NIH) officials improperly interfered with another federal office’s oversight of the ethics of a controversial NIH-funded study involving premature infants. At issue is the $20 million, 23-institution SUPPORT (Surfactant, Positive Pressure, and Oxygenation Randomized Trial) study, which from 2005 to 2009 studied the levels of oxygen that premature infants should receive.